Seattle: Getting out from liberal group think

BY JOEL CONNELLY, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Published 9:39 pm, Thursday, December 29, 2011

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney lifts Alexandria McDonald, 6 months, daughter of Microsoft employee Orville McDonald, far right, after a speech on Thursday, October 13, 2011 on the Microsoft campus in Redmond. The Republican presidential candidate came to Microsoft as part of a speaker series and talked about trade policy.

Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney lifts Alexandria McDonald, 6...

Altar servers walk past after the installation ceremony for The Most Rev. J. Peter Sartain at Saint James Cathedral. Sartain was installed as the fifth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle, succeeding retired Archbishop Alex Brunett.

Photo: Joshua Trujillo, Seattlepi.com

Altar servers walk past after the installation ceremony for The...

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn listens to student speakers in front of City Hall during a walkout by hundreds of Garfield High School students on Wednesday, November 30, 2011. People at the rally said about one third of the student body walked out to protest proposed education cuts now being considered during a special legislative session in Olympia.

Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn listens to student speakers in front of...

Joel Connelly has been a staff columnist for more than 30 years. He comments regularly on politics and public policy.

Emerald City political web sites are replete with Republican White House hopefuls playing pander bear to ultra-conservative caucus goers and GOP primary voters, whether it's denying climate change or demanding a ban on federal funds to Planned Parenthood health clinics.

The funny thing, however, is that GOP group-think is mirrored in some ways by the prevailing litmus-test liberal orthodoxy of Seattle.

As the New Year dawns, this self-consciously inclusive and diverse city should be challenged to walk its own talk. It would do us good to look beyond what Seattle Town Hall founder and Crosscut scribe David Brewster recently characterized as a "reactionary and defensive liberalism."

Here are some suggestions of where liberals in McGinnville need tolerance lessons:

-- Tolerance of Republicans: The national ones can be pretty awful, but a sub-species in this state has stood for government reform and environmental conservation. Washington Conservation Voters folk writing anti-Rob McKenna screeds should remember the wilderness protected by GOP Gov. (and Sen.) Dan Evans. Or GOP state senators who went to bat for Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition money.

Some on the liberal-left apply guilt to any association with Republicans. Reformist Seattle Port Commission members Bill Bryant and Tom Albro have been exposed for making past contributions to GOP candidates.

The moderate strain of Republicanism should not be allowed to go extinct. A left to far-left political spectrum is constrictive. Non-competitive, one-party legislative districts yield mediocre legislators. Choice is a good thing, as endless NARAL and Planned Parenthood appeals keep reminding me.

-- Tolerance of Believers: Our society now rightly frowns at racist and sexist remarks -- though Rush Limbaugh still serves up the same -- derogatory remarks about a person's ethnic origin, or sneering at a person's marital status. Why can't we extend the list to anti-religious bigotry?

It's distasteful to see constant attacks -- notably in The Stranger -- on the Catholic Church as a domain of reactionary red-hats and child molesters. One of its writers should someday commit an act of heresy by walking up to St. James Cathedral and seeing its treatment of homeless and the hungry. Or report on religious groups that embrace the LGBT community.

Suspicion has been ginned up against local candidates because they were -- gasp! --Presbyterians. Ugly campaigns against King County Exec hopeful Susan Hutchison and Seattle City Councilman Tim Burgess come to mind. A place in the pew should not be disqualification from public office.

-- Tolerance for business: Seattle has, in recent years, lost jobs and payrolls. The business community is worlds removed from autocratic, insular "civic builders" of yesteryear. Yet, any hint of a "progressive business climate" is treated with suspicion.

When called upon, our government leaders trot out business owners who have benefited from government largesse. A pizza shop owner and a cupcake entrepreneur have become staples at just about any big Democratic event.

The city needs, again, to welcome as candidates -- and policy advisers -- public service-minded folk. They bring us needed experience. Bryant, Albro and Gael Tarleton, for instance, are doing a far better job making the Port accountable than ineffectual "reform" commissioners of the past.

Job-supporting businesses need to be consulted -- yes, and when possible accommodated -- when they get impacted. Yes, that means "road diets" that close lanes on major streets, and jacking up parking rates, or requiring paid sick leave for employees.

-- Tolerance for robust debate: The Seattle left gets vociferous when it disapproves of a public figure's local appearance, or does not like what it hears. The result is that certain bodies of opinion aren't heard here.

You can get cut off in an echo chamber. It's reminiscent of the New York literary lioness who wondered how President Nixon could have won a 49-state landslide when she didn't know a person who voted for him.

We heard the suggestion -- after George W. Bush won a second term in 2004 -- that progressive corners of the country set themselves apart, do their thing and turn their backs on red state America.

Did the "strategic hamlet" program work in Vietnam? Nope. Seattle needs to reach out and debate ideas rather than defining heresies. That's the real inclusiveness.